fantastic beasts
by sebastopol
Summary: "she loves those creatures more than anything. even you, i'm afraid. but she looks at you special, is the thing. you put the stars back in her eyes." or, newton artemis fido scamander the second and seren jenkins, from ingary.
1. fantastic beasts

Newton Artemis Fido Scamander is born in a Muggle hospital to a wizard father and a Muggle mother. Her great-grandfather is still alive at the spritely age of one hundred and seventeen.

She is born to a Scamander for a father and a physicist for a mother, who wanted to name her after her great-grandfather and a scientist, respectively.

It's two birds with one stone, really. How convenient it was that her great-grandfather was named Newton.

* * *

Lorcan and Lysander take to calling her _Fig_ , of all things, if only to differentiate between her and their great-grandfather. It becomes a normalcy, for the most part. It catches on, oddly enough. Frequenting her great-grandfather's suitcase, too, becomes a normalcy. It becomes something she grows up with more than her increasing number of relatives do.

It came with the name, she supposed; this love of the wizarding world's creatures and their ilk. But it is as much of her life as anything else.

It is something she cannot _help_ , really. ("...won't have to change the name on the book at this rate," Newt Scamander the older says, only partially joking. As though she will carry on his research.

She will. She _will_. There has never been any doubt about it.)

They worry sometimes, her family, that she is too engrossed in this. Too _invested_. It will be the end of her one day, they try to tell her. It isn't _practical_. Besides, there are fifty two editions of that book! (And still growing, she reminds them. There is very little she does not already know of the creatures that reside in the wizarding world. It's up to her to learn more, isn't it?)

But just as any creature's nature cannot be changed, neither can hers.

* * *

She is sent packing off to Hogwarts when Lorcan and Lysander are in their seventh year. Her great-grandfather sends her off with an Occamy in its teapot, small and newborn.

She fidgets, mostly; twitchy more often than not. (She ends up joined in her carriage - empty except for her - by a girl with black hair and blue eyes and a charming smile who talks at her the whole time. She doesn't mind, really; welcomes it, in fact.

The girl is named Seren, turns out to be Welsh, and has an odd way of doing magic that she says is from her mother. They do not meet again until both are in their seventh year.)

She is nervous the whole train ride, and all the way through the Sorting Ceremony. She is relieved, somewhat, when the Hat bellows _HUFFLEPUFF!_ and she finds herself among a familiar sea of yellow and black. Habitually, she wrings the life out of her great-grandfather's old scarf.

(The Jenkins girl had been sorted into Slytherin, earlier. Our Newt is rather surprised to find she doesn't particularly care.)

* * *

She meets Seren Jenkins properly in seventh year. They are older, obviously, and yet she is _nervous_. She stutters out a _hello_ before squeezing past through the doorway of the classroom, leaving Seren behind (a bit rudely, she realizes later, somewhat embarrassed).

They are in Potions, and end up partnered, out of all the people in the room. She cannot stop her hands from shaking, no matter how hard she tries.

It's a surprise when Seren reaches over and steadies her shaking hands, calm and kind and not bothered at all by doing it.

It's even more of a surprise when the girl smiles at her. Slytherins were not particularly known for being _gentle_ people. No, that was, perhaps, a more common Hufflepuff characteristic.

It's an odd feeling.

* * *

Lorcan and Lysander tease her _endlessly_ about this; her infatuation with the Slytherin girl. Endlessly is less accurate than a week or two, though it certainly feels like endlessly.

But it isn't as though she is done being fascinated by Seren like the girl is one of her great-grandfather's creatures. She will come to look at Seren differently, but for now she looks at this girl from an unknown land the same way she does magical creatures: with endless fascination and stars in her eyes.

* * *

They form an odd sort of friendship. Seren is shrouded in mystery, for all that she seems to have revealed about herself.

In a school year, Seren manages to enchant her so _thoroughly._ There are no walls around her, exactly; it is more like Seren is a fantastic creature that has yet to be discovered.

* * *

She manages to get Seren down to her great-grandfather's suitcase the summer she stays at the Scamander estate. It's a challenge, given her family.

She expects Seren's bemused reaction - most people reacted that way: puzzled and bewildered - but does not expect her to _marvel_ at it.

They spend ages down there; Seren marveling at the creatures as they were shown to her. This was a result of fifty two editions of _Fantastic Beasts_ : a girl who found comfort in it and another who loved it as much as she did the girl.

(The way Seren looks at her and thinks, _Yes. I want her to look at me the way she looks at these creatures_ , goes well over her head.

"She never will," Newt's cousin Queenie will say. "She will always love those creatures more than anything."

"She will," her namesake says. "Not in the way you want, perhaps, but she will look at you with an endless determination that she loves you.")

* * *

"She's a fascinating girl, that one," the original Newt Scamander will say to her later. (He has seen the way they look at each other and think the other is looking at the ground. Perceived unrequited love is not something he is new to. As though he would let his great-granddaughter _pine_.) "We ought to let her stay."

"She lives in Ingary," she points out. "An entire world away."

It's a funny thing, she thinks. She so desperately wants Seren to stay, but could not possibly ask her to.

It's a funny thing, she thinks, because her great-grandfather was already calling down the hall to Seren, asking her to stay.

* * *

They spend more time in each other's company in the next four years than they ever did at Hogwarts. Seren travels between Ingary and England, dragging her along for the ride occasionally.

It is another summer that Seren is staying when her great-grandfather dies. He wills his suitcase and wand to her, and the Dorset house to his own children.

What she remembers of that time is an odd emptiness where she thinks sadness should be. She _is_ sad, truly, but it feels like that is delayed.

She sequesters herself away in her great-grandfather's suitcase - _hers_ , now; even that is hard to remember - for days at a time. Oftentimes, Seren is down there, too, so uncharacteristically quiet. She feels so _exhausted_ these days.

Her family worries that she will not recover from this. They speak in hushed tones of the depression she is falling into. She can hear Seren among them too, sometimes. It almost sounds as though she is _scared_ , then.

("Those creatures are the only thing keeping her alive," Seren says. It is clear even to her how much of a lifeline that suitcase is. What is terrifying is how _literal_ that was right now.)

* * *

Slowly, surely, she recovers. It happens over the course of five years, but she _recovers_.

She never is quite sure what it is she and Seren are ("Dating!" Lorcan and Lysander shout at her. "You're _dating_!" Honestly, she begs to differ.) but it certainly is _something_.

It's close to the end of the year when Seren asks after the silver ring on the desk in the suitcase. "My great-grandfather's," she says simply, expecting it to end there.

It doesn't, given the nosy person that Seren is. "Did you ever try it?" Seren asks not so innocently, knowing full well the answer.

"Of course not!" She could never bring herself to do it. Unlike everything else in this suitcase, the ring was something that wasn't meant to be left to her, at least not to her knowledge.

Seren watches the ring curiously as it glints and shines in the mix of lamplight and the light of the fire. With bated breath, she allows Seren to slip the ring on her finger. It shrinks ever so slightly to fit her finger, but it _fits_.

* * *

She forgets to take the ring off and that, perhaps, is what leads her family to assume that Seren had _proposed_.

It's a bit of a mess, really, and it doesn't particularly help that Seren swings an arm around her shoulder and _confirms_ it.

She doesn't really mind, surprisingly.

It's an odd feeling.

* * *

They end up with the Dorset house, shortly after the new year begins.

All her relatives had been debating about what to do with it, after her great-grandfather had died. They had refused adamantly to sell it - it was made for _Scamanders_ _,_ and to have another family live in it felt too much like an intrusion on a house they had all spent a good part of their lives in.

Rather unfortunately, this was also the year Seren went back to Ingary. Not permanently, but to temporarily fill the empty spot her father left as the Royal Wizard while he attended to more _pressing_ matters, according to the letter that Seren had received.

She frowns at this, pointing out that there was another Royal Wizard in Ingary already. It is the slightest bit selfish, to want Seren to stay when her far away world needed her. Seren leaves her with a soft kiss and a goodbye, promising to be back come next spring. ( _I need you,_ she doesn't say; the words catch in her throat, snagging. She has fallen so _hopelessly_. What does a little candle say to a staggering sun?

 _I melt as you approach._ )

Ilvermorny approaches her with an offer to be their guest lecturer for the next school year shortly afterwards, asking her to arrive early so that she might have time to get used to America; create a lesson plan. She accepts, if only to distract herself from the deafening quiet of the Dorset house.

* * *

They finally marry the spring after they move to Dorset. The wedding is eventful, and larger than she expected, but that is what comes from having a rather large family, and one well rooted in the wizarding world at that.

They do not really decide on whose last name to take - they end up using Seren's in Ingary, and hers in England. It only ever causes confusion when someone from Ingary came to England, or the other way round, but for the most part it is the easiest way around it.

She is very lucky, she knows, to have married her first love. It is hard to pinpoint when she looked over at Seren and thought, rather determinedly: _Yes. You are the person I love._

It was different from the way she loved her creatures; it is closer to _you deserve better and at my worst i worry that is what you'll realize._

* * *

They travel between Ingary and Dorset more often, and when she emerges from the fireplace into a moving castle she is utterly _fascinated_.

(The way Seren's mother glares at her only child and hisses under her breath, " _If you dare hurt this girl-_ -" and the way Seren pales, quick to agree, goes well over her head.

"Ah, yes, I'm afraid your mother will beat Death themselves to you if that happens," her father jokes, narrowly missing the _look_ she gives him.)

Ingary is endlessly fascinating, to her at least; Seren had lived here for the majority of her life, and thus already knew just about everything about it. Still, Seren allows her to ramble on about Ingary, only all too glad to listen. (This has become a major part of their relationship: Newt rambling on about things and Seren listening, and in some ways, it is what got Newt through that bout of depression when her great-grandfather had died.)

They talk deep into the night, those days, as they fall asleep and it feels like being objects in the night sky outside of time.

It is the exact opposite of alone. 


	2. moving castle

You end up at Hogwarts, of all places, because of your mother. She sends you off with the strong held belief that it would be _good_ for you. Good for what part of you escapes you, but Hogwarts is surprisingly pleasant.

You meet a girl on the train, alone in her own carriage, fidgety and nervous. She has a rather odd creature in her teapot - an Occamy, you learn later - and seems unable look you in the eye. You hold an extremely one-sided conversation with her, and she speaks up rarely, if ever.

The only certain thing you get out of her is her name.

You do not dwell too much on Newt Scamander, being in houses that purportedly were polar opposites in values. (Many are wrong in this respect, you think. Slytherin and Hufflepuff were known for being fiercely loyal to anyone they cared about. It just so happened that the former would kill for them and the latter would be supportive to the end.)

A vast amount of your friends are in Hufflepuff, and the few that are not are scattered among the houses. It is _absolutely not_ your doing that you have made so many friends in so little time, you insist to your mother. It isn't your problem that people here were eagerly trying to befriend you. Well, perhaps not you specifically. But eager to befriend, certainly. Who were you to deny them that?

(You cannot help but notice Newt Scamander off to the side, alone. Wringing the life out of her poor scarf. You are bustled away to the Slytherin common room before you can approach her again.)

* * *

Hogwarts, for the most part, is vastly more interesting than anything you've seen in the moving castle. It is new to you, that is to say, and so you find yourself staying out the year. Your family was not really one for celebrating holidays in their religious context, after all. Not that these other holidays - Christmas, Easter, and the like - were very widely known in Ingary, or very celebrated.

You return to Ingary over the summer, and forget all about Newton Scamander until seventh year. She stutters out a _hello_ before squeezing past you into Potions, looking as terrified (and as alone, you notice) as she had in first year.

She is _scared_ of you, you realize, when you see the way her hands shake. It is not surprising, with all those rumors floating around about you. You are a veela, a Dark wizard, a vampire, a werewolf - at least according to the students of Hogwarts. The teachers have surely heard them and don't believe them, but still keep their distance. It is the only thing, you think, that is a similarity between you and Newt: this isolation of sorts.

For you, though, it is hardly isolation when you have a plethora of friends. Newt is not a fish out of water the way you are.

You almost feel sorry for her.

* * *

You end up being friends with her, afterwards. In a school year, Newt changes from that little girl you remember on the train. Nothing about her changes, really; only your perception of her does.

She strikes you as the kind of person who doesn't know how to stop _giving_. (A waterfall - it is the only thing you can think of that endlessly gives but cannot receive, for all that rushes out of it.)

* * *

You find yourself staying at the Scamander estate the summer after seventh year. Newt manages to get you down to her great-grandfather's suitcase; a challenge given how many times they get stopped by her family.

It is an entire world, that suitcase, and you cannot help but be _amazed_ by it. It isn't hard to see why Newt - both of them - loved it so much; it is easy to forget the outside world in here. It is such a stark contrast to England's dreary weather with its plethora of habitats that, upon leaving, it feels like waking from a dream.

You look at Newt, so gentle with these creatures, so besotted with them, and think, _Yes. I want to her to look at me the way she does these creatures._

"She never will," Newt's cousin Queenie will say to you later. "She will always love those creatures more than anything."

"She will," her namesake says. "Perhaps not in the way you want, but she will look at you with an endless determination that she loves you."

* * *

You spend yet another summer - another year - with Newt, although you travel between Ingary and her frequently.

You spend more time in Newt's company in the past four years than you ever did at Hogwarts. You bring Newt along for the ride occasionally when you travel to Ingary, and she is as fascinated by the moving castle as much as she is with anything else. ( _I_ _t won't do to have a taker,_ she faintly remembers her mother saying. _Y_ _ou need a giver._ )

It is another summer you are staying in England when Newt's great-grandfather dies. He leaves her with his suitcase and his wand, and the place in Dorset to his own children. Newt sequesters herself away in that suitcase, and you join her on occasion, but you _worry_.

Newt seems so _exhausted_ these days. Her family whispers of the depression she is falling into.

"Those creatures are the only thing keeping her alive," you say. It is obvious how much of lifeline that suitcase is. It's terrifying how _literal_ that was at the moment.

* * *

Slowly, surely, Newt recovers. It happens over the course of five years, but Newt _recovers._ Lorcan and Lysander tease the two of you about _dating_. It's a funny thing, because for all that Newt protests it, you know that she doesn't really mind that people think you and her are together, and neither do you.

It's an odd feeling.

* * *

It's close to the end of the year when you ask after the silver ring on her desk in the suitcase. It was her great-grandfather's, she tells you simply, clearly expecting it to end there. It doesn't, because you're nosy.

"Did you ever try it?" you ask not so innocently, knowing full well the answer.

"Of course not!" Her tone is mildly indignant and defensive, still tinged with grief at the edges.

You watch the ring curiously as it glints and shines in the mix of lamplight and the light of the fire. It glows like moonlight. Gently, you take Newt's hand in your own, and slip the ring onto her finger.

Newt forgets to take the ring off. It's not surprising that she forgets, given how absent-minded she is, but her family assumes you _proposed_. It is Lorcan and Lysander who notice first, of course, and after that the whole ordeal is just a mess.

You don't think it particularly helps that you swing an arm around Newt's shoulders and confirm it.

Newt is as red as Lily Potter's hair, but you do not miss the small smile she tries to hide.

* * *

You end up with the Dorset house, shortly after the new year begins.

You remember how, when Newt Scamander had died and willed the house in Dorset to his children, there was a great deal of bickering over what would be done with it in between worrying about the depression your own Newt had begun to sink into.

Unfortunately, this was also the year you return to Ingary more permanently than before, temporarily taking your father's place as one of the two Royal Wizards of Ingary while he attended to more _pressing_ matters, as the letter so put it.

Newt frowns at this, pointing out how Ingary had _two_ Royal Wizards - surely they could do without one?

You know this to be true, but the King so happens to need both Suliman's and Howl's magic for what he has in mind - bringing the Waste back to life, after the ordeal with the Witch of it - and it is very hard to get away with ignoring royalty.

You leave Newt with a soft kiss and a goodbye, promising to be back come next spring.

(You only find out Newt has taken on an odd job at Ilvermorny to be their guest lecturer for the year until it is close to when she has to leave. You feel a small surge of pride, and remember the little girl on the train, alone. But that memory is bittersweet now, and both of you have changed tremendously since then.)

* * *

You finally marry the spring you both return; you from Ingary and Newt from America, with her cousin Queenie in tow.

The wedding is eventful, and larger than either of you thought it would be, but that is to be expected with a family as well rooted in the wizarding world as the Scamanders.

You never really decide whose last name to take. Instead, you take Newt's in England and your own in Ingary, only ever causing confusion when someone from Ingary visited England, or the other way around.

Your travels between Ingary and Dorset become more frequent, and Newt is still as fascinated by the moving castle as ever. Your mother glares at you and hisses under her breath, " _If you dare hurt this girl-_ " You go pale, quick to agree, not wanting to find out the threat your mother has in store.

"Ah, yes, I'm afraid your mother will beat Death themselves to you if that happens," her father jokes, narrowly missing the _look_ her mother gives him.

You look over at Newt, as fascinated and besotted with the world as ever. _Y_ _ou need a giver_ , the memory of your mother whispers in the back of your mind. And so it seems you have finally found yourself one.


End file.
